The Bedtime Story
by Sleep and Tea
Summary: Clary revisits her painful memories of her youth during a nighttime reading session with her young son.


"Mama?" Clary sits up rapidly as she's awoken. In front of her is her little boy, a miniature version of Jace, holding a worn small hippo in his arms. "Mama?" he says again, wide eyed and confused. She groans as she plops her head on the pillow. Clary glares at the clock next to her and impatiently says, "Love, it's almost 2:30. What was so important that I just had to be up for?" "Hilary said she couldn't sleep, what should I do?" he asked as he lift the hippo slightly in his arms. "Well, what does she need so she can sleep?" Clary replied tiredly. She glances at Jace, in his angelic form of messy hair and wild arms. Why couldn't he be the one woken up when "Hilary" couldn't sleep? The boy looks at his mother and then begins whispering to the obviously very awake looking hippo. There was lots of movement of moving the stuffed animal to his ear and down again. A smile appeared on his face and his eyes twinkled happily. "She says she has to read all of those old comics that you hid under your bed." Clary sits up and looks sternly at him. "How do you know about those?" The box had belonged to Alec before he and Magnus got married. It was baby blue with the words "Alec Lightwood's Genderswap Cosplay." How Clary had never been more happy that her son couldn't understand all of those words. It was not a conversation she wanted to have this early in the morning. The young boys face drained of colour and then was filled with determination. "I swear, I don't! Hilary is the one that likes to go snooping in your room when daddy's sleeping on the couch. I didn't even know about them until she told me a second ago! You have to believe me, you just have to!!" Clary looked at her son with a frown. "First of all, they're not only just comic books but manga. Secondly, you are going to your Uncle Simon's tomorrow to play with your cousins and you do not want to be tired when you go, do you?" The young boy frowned and shook his head saddly at his mother. He looked at her with pleading eyes. Clary sighed and bent over the side of the bed and slid out the box from under it. "Fine, but only one." Jace rotated and nearly shook the bed with a tremendous release of gas. "Mama? Maybe we can read out on the couch where we don't have to worry about daddy's stinkyness," the boy said as he scrunched up his nose with disgust. Clary quickly agreed and the two of them quietly, hand in hand, walked to the living room couch. She decided to make a pot of hot water for her tea and hot chocolate while her son was picking out which manga they should read. "Mama! These books are backwards!" Clary laughed and pointed out to her son that it was supposed to be like that. He laughed too and was back on his way to pick what would be considered "The One." "Look! This is it, I found it," he gasped happily. Clary glanced at the cover of the manga from the kitchen's door. "Naruto," she breathed out. Clary hadn't seen that manga in years. In fact, she had completely forgotten that it even existed at all. The last time she saw that particular manga was with Max. Clary looked up and began to blink back tears. She was not going to cry in front of her son. "Mama? I can pick a different one if you want. I wouldn't mind it," he said cautiously. She shakes her head and pulled her son on her lap and began to read, both mother and child forgetting about the tea on the counter and Hilary on the floor. While the two read, they became obvious to the rest of the world. To the early morning sun. To Jace coming out and staring at them strangely, sleep still in his eyes and then turning around back to bed. To the amount of manga and comics they read in a matter of hours. As Clary closed the last one, she looked at her son whose eyes were nearly closed. She smiled and picked him up and picked Hilary up as well and carried him down the hall to his bed. She tucked him in and placed the hippo in his arms and began to walk out the door. "Mama?" Clary turned around, shocked that he was awake still. "Yes?" "Mama, why did somebody else write my name in all of those mangas," her son said quietly. Clary smiled sadly and said, "Well, maybe some other little boy wanted you to have them to take care of for him. I think he would want somebody who loves them as much as he did to read and enjoy them." "You think so?" "I know so, Max." Clary kissed his head and turned off the light and closed the door. From his bedroom door, she could see the mess the two of them made. Sighing, she begins to clean up. As she is about to put the first stack in the baby blue box, she sees a crumbled paper. Curious, she opens it up gingerly and drops it. Staring back at her is Max riding Jace's shoulders with Alec and Izzy on each side of him, arms wrapped around each other. Every one was smiling so big and Clary could nearly hear Max's young giggle through the paper. She had never seen the three oldest so relaxed. The photo was clearly from before Clary them, since Jace had a streak of red in his side bangs. She hadn't seen him smile like that since Clary told him she was pregnant nearly seven years previous. Tears began to fall, staining the paper. Clary held it to her chest and collapsed on the floor whispering through the heart wrenching sobs, "Max...this is all my fault...you were so young...all of my fault...I...we...love you...I'm so sorry...so sorry..." When Jace woke up and went into the living room to see his wife's sleeping form surrounded by manga. He picked her up and carried her into their bedroom laying her down into the bed. He kissed her cheek and whispered to her, "No one ever blamed you," and wiped away his own tear.


End file.
